Weekdays are more popular for video viewing

While many consumers use weekends to catch up on TiVo'd programming, online videos are saved for weekday viewing. According to new research from Nielsen Online, users are most likely to view online video clips Monday - Friday from 9am - 5pm (65%).

by Kristina Knight

Running a close second is the weekend daypart of 6am - 8am (51%). The third-highest viewing time for online videos is between 5pm and 8pm Monday -Friday (49%). Monday - Friday from 8pm - 11pm (43%) and Monday - Friday 12pm - 2pm (34%) rounded out the top five. All told, viewers are most likely to view online clips during the week, making weekday advertising a better option for most advertisers.

This data was compiled in October; it is interesting to note that overall video streams from September to October decreased by about 3%, although the time spent per viewer (10 minutes) and streams per viewer (4) each increased.

Some things remained the same for both months, primarily the hubs viewers turned to most often. YouTube remained in a strong first position (82 million unique users), followed by Fox Interactive Media (18 million unique users) and Hulu (9 million unique users).

As more viewers continue to log on, marketers need to follow. Most of the content is offered free of charge by providers, giving marketers the ability to sponsor specific streams or types of streams. By sponsoring a type of video, marketers can contextually target their ads and at the same time feel more confident about the clip sponsored because they will know the content ahead of time.

Tags: Nielsen Online, online video, video ad targeting, video streams, viral marketing